The House of Mirth

Description

In The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton gives us a witty and piercingly insightful dark satire about the privileged society of early twentieth-century New York. It's this world that inspired the lavish costume drama The Gilded Age, written by Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition features an introduction by novelist Danuta Reah. Lily Bart is twenty-nine, beautiful and charming. She has expensive tastes, loves to gamble and socializes with the wealthy upper-class families of New York. But her meagre finances are dwindling and her place in society is slipping away from her. Her only hope of security is to find a suitable husband. However, Lily has an independence of spirit that stands in the way of her committing to the suitors available to her. As her options diminish, her friends become her enemies and her situation grows increasing perilous.

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was born into the whirl of New York Society which features in so much of her writing but was often dissatisfied with the expected life of a girl in her position. In particular she strived to improve her education, and her first poem was published aged 15, under the name of a friend's father, E. A. Washburn, who encouraged Edith's efforts to educate herself and be a writer. Her first novel was published when she was forty. Wharton is best known for her novels Ethan Frome, The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, 1928 and 1930.